pulkit.blogNotes by Pulkit on building software, system design, and the craft of interfaces.https://pulkit.blog/2026-08-09T00:00:00ZPulkithttps://pulkit.page/Kaksha: The App I Built for My Motherhttps://pulkit.blog/kaksha/2026-08-09T00:00:00Z2026-08-09T00:00:00ZMy mother has spent the last year building the timetable for an entire government school by hand. I finally sat down, made her explain how it actually works, and shipped an Android tablet app for her in one night. This is that story.Partial Clones, Shallow Clones, and Sparse Checkouthttps://pulkit.blog/git-partial-clones/2026-08-03T00:00:00Z2026-08-03T00:00:00ZA deep dive into git's three cloning knobs: how partial clone, shallow clone, and sparse checkout actually work under the hood, and the exact recipe that turns a multi-gigabyte clone into a few seconds of download when you only need to touch one file.My First Talk: Claude Directoryhttps://pulkit.blog/my-first-talk/2026-06-13T00:00:00Z2026-06-13T00:00:00ZThe story of the craziest 24 hours I've had: launching Claude Directory, watching it cross 75k views and 160+ stars overnight, and then walking up to demo it on stage for the very first time in my life.Git Worktreeshttps://pulkit.blog/git-worktrees/2026-05-29T00:00:00Z2026-05-29T00:00:00ZA deep dive into git worktrees: how they actually work under the hood, the full command surface, and the workflow I use to run multiple AI agents like Claude Code in parallel without them stepping on each other.The Cookie Sync Patternhttps://pulkit.blog/cookie-sync-pattern/2026-05-04T00:00:00Z2026-05-04T00:00:00ZHow to make localStorage state work with SSR. No more hydration mismatches, no more flash of wrong content. A pattern that works for themes, sidebars, user preferences, and any persisted UI state.An MCP Server That Writes Itselfhttps://pulkit.blog/mcp-server-that-writes-itself/2026-04-22T00:00:00Z2026-04-22T00:00:00ZA plain-language look at how to put an MCP server in front of a Hono API, reuse your existing auth and OpenAPI file, and let tools generate themselves from your routes.Rate Limitinghttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/rate-limiting/2026-04-11T00:00:00Z2026-04-11T00:00:00ZLearn how rate limiters protect your systems from being overwhelmed. Understand where to place them, why Redis is the go-to database, five popular algorithms, and how to scale with sharding. Includes the practical insight of building rate limiters as libraries instead of services.BullMQ Cron Jobs with Redis in Node.jshttps://pulkit.blog/cron-jobs-with-bullmq/2026-03-29T00:00:00Z2026-03-29T00:00:00ZSchedule cron jobs in Node.js with BullMQ repeatable jobs and Redis: workers, scheduler internals, graceful shutdown, and DB sync. Full TypeScript code.Invisible Scissorshttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/clip-path-reveals/2026-03-25T00:00:00Z2026-03-25T00:00:00Zclip-path trims elements into circles and polygons, but it is also a powerful animation tool. Learn how inset clipping works, build before and after sliders without extra wrappers, reveal images without layout shift, and fire reveals with Intersection Observer.Choreographing Multi-Step Motionhttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/keyframe-animations/2026-03-15T00:00:00Z2026-03-15T00:00:00ZKeyframe animations let you choreograph multi-step sequences that play automatically, loop forever, or pause mid-flight. Learn when to reach for keyframes over transitions, how fill-mode controls the before and after, and how to stack independent animations on a single element.Smooth Scrolling in Next.jshttps://pulkit.blog/smooth-scroll/2026-03-03T00:00:00Z2026-03-03T00:00:00ZHow to add buttery smooth scrolling to a Next.js app using Lenis, GSAP ScrollTrigger, and Locomotive Scroll. The tradeoffs, the setup, and when you actually need it.Smooth Operatorshttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/css-transitions/2026-02-27T00:00:00Z2026-02-27T00:00:00ZCSS transitions interpolate between UI states so changes feel intentional. Learn the four transition properties, why to avoid 'all', when transitions beat keyframes, and how to keep hover effects off touch devices.How I Use Cursor to Build at 1000x Speedhttps://pulkit.blog/how-i-use-cursor/2026-02-26T00:00:00Z2026-02-26T00:00:00ZA deep dive into how I use Cursor AI to ship production features faster than ever, the workflows that actually work, and why my company sponsors the Ultra plan for every engineerMoving Things Without Moving Themhttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/moving-things-without-moving-them/2026-02-24T00:00:00Z2026-02-24T00:00:00ZUnderstand CSS transforms and why they're the foundation of performant animations. Learn translate, rotate, scale, the order trap that catches everyone, and how to think in 3D.Offloading Motion to the GPUhttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/offloading-motion-to-the-gpu/2026-02-03T00:00:00Z2026-02-03T00:00:00ZFix janky CSS animations by understanding the rendering pipeline. Learn which properties trigger GPU acceleration, why transform beats width, and when to choose CSS over JavaScript.Training Your Eye for Motionhttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/training-your-eye-for-motion/2026-01-29T00:00:00Z2026-01-29T00:00:00ZWhy taste is the skill that separates good interfaces from great ones. Learn how to develop your intuition for animation, study the work of others, and build the judgment that AI can't replace.The Physics Behind Natural Motionhttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/the-physics-behind-natural-motion/2026-01-28T00:00:00Z2026-01-28T00:00:00ZMove beyond duration-based animations. Learn how spring physics creates motion that responds, adapts, and feels genuinely natural. The secret behind iOS's fluid interactions.When to Animate and When to Skiphttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/when-to-animate-and-when-to-skip/2026-01-28T00:00:00Z2026-01-28T00:00:00ZNot every interaction needs motion. Learn how frequency, duration, and context determine whether animation helps or hurts your interface. The difference between delight and frustration.Easing Curves That Feel Naturalhttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/easing-curves-that-feel-natural/2026-01-27T00:00:00Z2026-01-27T00:00:00ZMaster easing curves to make your animations feel natural. Learn why linear is almost always wrong, how cubic-bezier works, and which easing to use for different interactions.The Psychology of Motion in UIhttps://pulkit.blog/design-engineering/psychology-of-motion/2026-01-25T00:00:00Z2026-01-25T00:00:00ZDiscover why some animations feel natural while others feel off. Explore the brain's wiring for movement, the uncanny valley of UI, and when animation becomes harmful.Introduction to Big Data Toolshttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/big-data-tools/2026-01-24T00:00:00Z2026-01-24T00:00:00ZLearn why big data processing exists, how distributed computing works, and why tools like Apache Spark handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on business logic.Bloom Filtershttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/bloom-filters/2026-01-24T00:00:00Z2026-01-24T00:00:00ZLearn how Bloom filters work: a probabilistic data structure that tells you with 100% certainty when something doesn't exist. Understand hash functions, bit arrays, false positives, and real-world use cases like recommendation engines and web crawlers.Consistent Hashinghttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/consistent-hashing/2026-01-24T00:00:00Z2026-01-24T00:00:00ZLearn how consistent hashing solves the data ownership problem in distributed systems. Understand hash-based routing, the ring abstraction, and how to scale up and down with minimal data movement.Communication Protocolshttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/communication-protocols/2026-01-23T00:00:00Z2026-01-23T00:00:00ZUnderstand how clients and servers communicate over the network. TCP fundamentals, HTTP, WebSockets, Server-Sent Events, and API paradigms like REST, GraphQL, gRPC, and tRPC.High Availabilityhttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/high-availability/2026-01-23T00:00:00Z2026-01-23T00:00:00ZLearn how to build resilient systems through data redundancy, automatic failover, and leader election. Understand backup strategies, database replication, disaster recovery patterns, and how leader election enables zero-downtime auto-recovery.Circuit Breakershttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/circuit-breakers/2026-01-13T00:00:00Z2026-01-13T00:00:00ZLearn how circuit breakers prevent cascading failures in distributed systems. Understand why services fail together, how to implement circuit breakers, and practical patterns for building resilient microservices.Load Balancershttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/load-balancers/2026-01-11T00:00:00Z2026-01-11T00:00:00ZLearn how load balancers enable horizontal scalability by distributing traffic across multiple servers. Understand load balancing algorithms, request flow, and key advantages for building resilient systems.Message Queues vs Streams: SQS, RabbitMQ, Kafka, Pub/Subhttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/async-processing/2026-01-10T00:00:00Z2026-01-10T00:00:00ZMessage queues vs streams explained with SQS, RabbitMQ, Kafka, and Redis Pub/Sub, covering ack, dead letter queues, and async processing at scale.Cachinghttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/caching/2026-01-08T00:00:00Z2026-01-08T00:00:00ZUnderstand caching fundamentals: what it is, why it matters, and how to use it. Learn about cache architecture, key-value access patterns, and real-world examples with Redis and Memcached.Non-Relational Databaseshttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/non-relational-databases/2026-01-08T00:00:00Z2026-01-08T00:00:00ZExplore the world of NoSQL databases: Document DBs, Key-Value Stores, and Graph Databases. Learn when to use each type, their trade-offs, and why they scale horizontally out of the box.Understanding Database Scaling and Sharding Patternshttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/understanding-database-scaling-sharding/2026-01-07T00:00:00Z2026-01-07T00:00:00ZMaster database scaling from vertical to horizontal scaling, read replicas, sharding strategies, and partitioning techniques. Learn when to use synchronous vs asynchronous replication and how to choose the right shard key.React Virtualized List from Scratchhttps://pulkit.blog/virtualized-list/2026-01-04T00:00:00Z2026-01-04T00:00:00ZBuild a React virtualized list from scratch with the simple scroll math that renders only visible rows to keep huge lists smooth.Database Transaction Internals: ACID, WAL, MVCC & Lockinghttps://pulkit.blog/system-design/db-transaction-internals/2026-01-03T00:00:00Z2026-01-03T00:00:00ZDatabase transaction internals explained: how ACID, WAL, MVCC, and locking work across PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MongoDB to keep data consistent.Next.js Build Output Symbols (● ○ ƒ) and SSGhttps://pulkit.blog/ssg-in-nextjs/2026-01-01T00:00:00Z2026-01-01T00:00:00ZNext.js build output symbols decoded: ● means SSG (prerendered as static HTML), ○ Static, ƒ Dynamic, plus how SSG, SSR and ISR work.Branded Types in TypeScripthttps://pulkit.blog/branded-types-in-typescript/2025-12-26T00:00:00Z2025-12-26T00:00:00ZLearn how branded types can prevent ID mix-ups and enforce domain rules across your TypeScript, Next.js, Drizzle, and Zod codebase.SEO for Next.js Portfoliohttps://pulkit.blog/seo-for-nextjs-portfolio/2025-12-21T00:00:00Z2025-12-21T00:00:00ZDiscover the exact SEO strategies that helped my Next.js website rank at the top of Google search results using SSG, dynamic metadata, and Open Graph optimizationRAG Chatbot with Qdranthttps://pulkit.blog/rag-chatbot-with-qdrant/2025-12-11T00:00:00Z2025-12-11T00:00:00ZLearn how to build an intelligent chatbot using Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) with Qdrant vector database, OpenAI embeddings, and Next.js. A complete guide to creating context-aware AI assistants.Coolify: Self-Host Postgres, Redis & Next.jshttps://pulkit.blog/deploying-on-coolify/2025-07-26T00:00:00Z2025-07-26T00:00:00ZCoolify self-hosting guide to deploy Postgres, Redis, and a Next.js app on one server, an open-source Vercel alternative you fully control.Build a Contact Form with Resend in Next.jshttps://pulkit.blog/contact-form-with-resend/2024-12-13T00:00:00Z2024-12-13T00:00:00ZBuild a Resend contact form in Next.js using Server Actions and React email templates, then verify a custom domain to reach the inbox.Open Graph Images in Next.jshttps://pulkit.blog/og-images-in-nextjs/2024-11-15T00:00:00Z2024-11-15T00:00:00ZLearn how to enhance your Next.js app with dynamic Open Graph images to boost social media visibility and engagementPrisma ORM with PostgreSQLhttps://pulkit.blog/prisma-with-postgresql/2024-08-17T00:00:00Z2024-08-17T00:00:00ZPrisma ORM with PostgreSQL setup in Node.js and TypeScript, covering schema, migrations, and type-safe CRUD operations for fewer runtime errorsReact Image Gallery with PhotoSwipehttps://pulkit.blog/image-gallery-with-photoswipe/2024-08-12T00:00:00Z2024-08-12T00:00:00ZBuild a React image gallery with PhotoSwipe and react-photoswipe-gallery to add animated, responsive image zoom to your appReact Context Menu with react-contexifyhttps://pulkit.blog/context-menu-in-react/2024-08-10T00:00:00Z2024-08-10T00:00:00ZBuild a custom React context menu with react-contexify, adding items, separators, submenus, and right-click triggers for fast in-app actions.AWS S3 with Node.js: Upload Files with SDK v3https://pulkit.blog/aws-s3-with-nodejs/2024-08-08T00:00:00Z2024-08-08T00:00:00ZIntegrate AWS S3 with Node.js using the @aws-sdk/client-s3 S3 client to upload files and images and manage buckets in your app.Node.js on EC2 with PM2 and NGINXhttps://pulkit.blog/nodejs-on-ec2/2024-08-05T00:00:00Z2024-08-05T00:00:00ZLearn to deploy Node.js applications on EC2 using PM2 and NGINX for robust and scalable production environments. Step-by-step guide includedCreating Your Own npx Commandhttps://pulkit.blog/creating-npx-command/2024-07-27T00:00:00Z2024-07-27T00:00:00ZLearn to create a personalized `npx` command to share your details with others efficiently. Follow my step-by-step guide on creating `npx devpulkit`FastAPI SSE: Server-Sent Events in Pythonhttps://pulkit.blog/sse-with-fastapi/2024-07-26T00:00:00Z2024-07-26T00:00:00ZStream real-time Server-Sent Events from FastAPI with sse-starlette's EventSourceResponse for long-running tasks and live updates. Full Python code.Scroll Indicator with Framer Motion useScrollhttps://pulkit.blog/scroll-indicator-with-framer/2024-07-24T00:00:00Z2024-07-24T00:00:00ZBuild a horizontal scroll indicator with Framer Motion using the useScroll and useTransform hooks to track scroll progress in React.Python Dependency Management with Poetryhttps://pulkit.blog/python-poetry-guide/2024-07-13T00:00:00Z2024-07-13T00:00:00ZLearn how to simplify Python dependency management using Poetry with easy installation, project setup, and a FastAPI server exampleVSCode in Your Browserhttps://pulkit.blog/vscode-in-browser/2024-07-04T00:00:00Z2024-07-04T00:00:00ZGuide on setting up a VSCode Server in your browser using DockerTypewriter Effect in Reacthttps://pulkit.blog/typewriter-effect-in-react/2024-04-28T00:00:00Z2024-04-28T00:00:00ZLearn how to create a typewriter effect in React with this step-by-step guide. Engage your audience with nostalgic charm